Life is full of choices. Every day we must decide where we will go, who we will spend our time with, what person we will love, whether to give or receive forgiveness, and what we will sacrifice to gain something we perceive to be valuable. Sometimes we make good decisions but some of them will cause us to experience pain and regret. Relationships are gained and lost, lives are made and sometimes lost based on our choices. The road not traveled may haunt us more than the paths we do take.
How do we make peace with the life we’ve chosen? How do we move on from the heartache that is often of our own creation? Sometimes we get the opportunity to fix our mistakes and correct a wrong- but often we don’t. Sometimes what was lost returns to us but sometimes it remains a void that we can’t fill in this lifetime. How do we make sense of it all and what hope do we have?
Thankfully, we have a Savior. He is known also as our Redeemer and his business is restoration. If we only had this life to live, the weight of our choices would seem impossibly heavy and the burden would be unbearable. But the hope of eternity brings the possibility of restoration and redemption, even for the worst sinner. You see, with Jesus, nothing is really lost or damaged beyond repair. He who works all things for the good of those who love Him is able to make all things new. Forgiveness and grace allow us to walk from this life to the next where we see how the story unfolds in ways we would never have imagined.
A few years ago I had a glimpse into heaven that I will never forget. I had a dream about 3 people that are very special to me but who have never been able to get along in this lifetime. Bad choices, deception, jealousy and pain ruled their lives for years. I never thought I could ever see these 3 people in the same room together, let alone ever see them get along. But I have had hope through it all and I believe that Jesus has been and continues to be at work in their lives in a way I could never have predicted. God revealed to me in my dream the restoration of their relationships in heaven where sin no longer controlled them. He showed me a brief glimpse of the three of them together, smiling, laughing and waiting for me to join them. I remember my eyes filling with tears as I looked on at them in wonder. I woke with the joy of knowing that I can look forward to peace and healing in every part of my life that has been tainted by this fallen world.
In heaven, we will have the opportunity to look into the eyes of those who had been lost to us and reclaim what this life has stolen. If God has forgiven us, he will restore that which seemed out of our reach. We will see wounds healed, broken hearts mended, we will hear laughter from the lips of those we caused to weep, we will have time to enjoy the company of those whose lives we missed out on while we squandered time on useless things, and we will feel the fullness of forgiveness by those we have hurt in unspeakable ways. We will see the young grow up whose lives were cut short, we will hold babies that never made it to our arms, we will talk to those who never had a voice, and we will say all the words we never got to say before it was too late. Relationships will blossom and grow in the warmth of the Son and we will finally be made whole and free from the binding of sin and strife.
Jesus is the key to it all. We dedicate our life to him, we receive his grace and forgiveness and in return, we get back what was lost and even more. Job 4:10 says “the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!” Jesus is ready and willing to bless us in this life, but even more abundantly in the next as we step into the promise of a redeemed Heaven and Earth just as He always intended it to be.
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